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that time when hubby spent two days making candles

some time ago my husband and i both became unemployed. on the same day. to say it was devastating is the understatement of the year. but worse things have happened – a job is not your identity. it brought us closer together and we decided that we would not let this weigh us down.

did it happen right away? noooooooo. i can count a few days in the first week that neither hubby nor i got out of our pjs. the littlest family member went sans bathtime for days on end. dishes piled up in the sink and an unconscious act on my part of avoiding public places (aka the grocery store) led our kids to back to back meals of macaroni and cheese. blech! just letting everything sink in and for us to process things took time.

but we rallied around in short order.

it was a conscious decision on our part to make our own sunshine.

things started to look up rather quickly after that and hubby went on a number of interviews. a few offers came in but he was holding out hope for one job in particular. waiting….and waiting….two interviews in to it all and still waiting. in the meantime we took a huge leap of faith and he turned down another big job offer. what the WHAT?! i know. but we were praying for the first job; the right job - that not only fit him but fit our family for the long term.

in those days of waiting the anxiety ate at us slowly. we were snowed in for much of this time and i caught hubby literally pacing a few times. finally, after many phone calls and emails it came down to crunch time and he received word that he should expect a call within 48 hours from the company with a contract offer.

time has never crawled more slowly. i didn’t know how to help, and not being the most patient person in the world myself i finally just blurted out to hubby “why don’t you go make some candles or something.” out of thin air that is what came to me. i have no answer why. nor can i explain the fact that he listened, and took me seriously. so seriously, in fact, that within a matter of two hours our kitchen had become a make-shift candle factory.

it was quite possibly the single most bizarre thing for my hubby to do but it worked! he was busy, determined and focused to get all the scents, colors and wax measurements just right. and he was enjoying himself! by the end of the day my kitchen counter was lined with almost a dozen scented candles. there were pomegranate, wild fern and sweet pea scents drifting around. my favorite is the mocha colored candle with the wooden wick that crackles as it burns – hubby dubbed it 'heminway' and it smells heavenly.

who knew. i certainly didn’t see all that coming. that’s just the thing though – neither of us saw a lot of what has happened in the past few months coming and yet in the bigger picture it was all meant to be; candle-making included. how often are we all blindsided by life and left wandering and wondering. but blessings can be hidden in the strangest of places if we are open to receiving them. hard work will pay off in the end. God is good, even when the path in front of you seems to have turned to dust and blown away. it’s not really disappeared at all.

growing up, my mother would light a candle at our house when she had a special prayer concern. to this day it is not unusual to end a phone call with my mom and hear her say “i will light a candle”. both metaphorically and literally, that has always been something i could count on and it has meant so much.

that day, after hubby lept with both feet and consumed himself with melting wax and concocting various recipes in order to save himself from his own anxiety, we selected one of the newly poured candles and we lit it.

the next day he got the call and accepted his new job.

if it weren’t for those candles we all might just have gone stir crazy during those 48 hours. but sometimes it begins with some homemade sunshine of your own doing. blessings abound.